Nearly 400 horses and mules have been processed at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, La., since post-hurricane rescues began, and according to Bonnie Clark, president of the Louisiana Equine Council, all but four have unique identification (breed association tattoos or microchips).

Clark has been heading up equine operations at the staging facility since the first shipment of rescued horses and mules arrived on Sept. 1. Of the 364 horses that have come through Lamar-Dixon, 176 remain there. “Most are owned and identified and we’re just finding places for them to be moved,” Clark reported. The target date for removing the remaining horses is October 10.

Twenty of the yet-unclaimed horses processed at Lamar-Dixon have microchips or tattoos that will reveal who the owners of the horses are; Clark has submitted the numbers to breed organizations and reference agencies and is waiting for a response. “We know that they will in some, way, shape or form, have contact information (associated with them),” she said. The other four horses have no tattoo or microchip.

Clark is happy that so many of the horses have been identified. “To my knowledge, I don’t think this (identifying so many horses’ owners after a disaster) has ever been done before,” she said. “I’ve got to attribute that to the microchip system (required for horses being shipped in the state of Louisiana) and the way this whole system has been handled